A lot has happened to Jack Draper since he last played at Wimbledon and unfortunately for him most of this has occurred away from the court.
Draper, a former world No.4 with one Masters 1000 title to name, has only played six tournaments since his shock second round loss to Marin Cilic at SW19 12 months ago. Towards the second part of last season, bone bruising in his serving arm forced the Brit to spend six months away from the Tour. He returned to action in Indian Wells this year, but it wasn’t long before another setback occurred.
Halfway through April, Draper retired from his opening match at the Barcelona Open with a knee injury. This turned out to be a right knee tendon injury (tendinitis), which sidelined him from the rest of the clay swing.
His latest comeback launched last week in Eastbourne, where he reached the semi-finals. An encouraging sign for Draper, who enters Wimbledon unseeded and will face Taylor Fritz in his opening match.
“I’m someone who’s all in with my tennis. Especially the years I was coming up, there wasn’t a lot of time for anything else. It was just tennis, tennis, tennis. I suppose that was a big learning experience in the last year or so.” Draper told reporters on Sunday.
“When that gets taken away from you, what else have you got going on, because tennis, you’re travelling all the time, you’re playing in front of people, big dopamine. You’re always progressing. Wins and losses even, that gives you that fire.
“Whereas not having that for a long period of time, it definitely sends you a bit. You’re almost confused. I tried to be preoccupied with other things. I tried to get away a little bit.
“It wasn’t easy, especially not watching tennis really. I just had to stay away from it. It would wind me up to watch tennis because I wanted to be out there.”
Draper is currently working alongside Andy Murray, who has initially agreed to join him just for the grass swing. There is yet to be any confirmation if this partnership might be extended. Although this is not the main priority at the moment, it is getting Draper back to shape.
As for his current fitness, Draper admits he is ‘far from great’, but the signs are promising.
“I would say that my power, in terms of when I can compete, I would say my power is in a really good place. I’m moving great. I still say I’m far from perfect. I’m getting there.” He said of his current level.
“It’s been an incredibly long process. It’s taken a lot out of me mentally coming back and coming back and coming back.
“At the same time, I feel like I’m in a position now where I can compete at a really high level and really compete with the best players. There was a period, even earlier this year, I was compromising a lot of things. I was using gut strings, changing different areas in my game, not practicing hardly at all.
“Now I’m in a position where I’ve got that load for my body and I’m able to go out there and compete.”
A former Wimbledon junior finalist in 2018, 24-year-old Draper has already illustrated his ability to play alongside the best in the world. A semi-finalist at the 2024 US Open, he has a trio of ATP titles to his name and nine wins over top 10 players.
“I think my tennis hasn’t gone anywhere because I’ve really been dedicated every day to try and do everything possible so that when I am back on court, like now, I’m in a good place,” he said.
“I still believe, even now after all this time, I’m still competing at an incredibly high level. I’m looking forward to working my way up again.”
Draper looks to take this high level into his showdown with Fritz.
“It’s important that I focus on my preparation. I believe that I can obviously win the match. But I need to play incredible tennis and need to compete really hard. I need to be ready for it.” He concluded.
